Violists - advice please

Hi,

a quick question for any violists out there - is this playable? I'm thinking particularly of the larger intervals towards the end.

Thanks.

Adam.

P.S. apologies if a midi file isn't suitable? Can people read it (as a score) with their software?

What is suitable if not?

Cheers.

viola_fragment.mid

Oh go on - is it doable or are the violists going to curse me over their twisted fingers?

please?

Adam.

Not really that my twisting, kind of weird at some points, but overall not to bad. My main problem with this piece is you are making huge jumps on a string instrument. Open C to D to a high F is very impracticle for any instrument really. I'm not a violist but I can guess how it would feel to play. Is the sound you want worth this awkwardness?

Thanks for the reply.

String technique is a mystery to me, which is why I need the advice; this is one part of a quartet, and it does really need to be like this on the one viola to get the effect right - the other instruments are busy through most of this passage, and in any case it's a sort of dialogue between this viola and the second violin (similar interleaved, but much easier, pattern).

If it's too unthinkable to have the viola jump like this then I will have to rearrange, but if I can get away with it I'd really like to leave it.

Adam.

You are asking the person to play the fret note on the low string to a another note on the high string and then back to the low string with a bow. Most string players won't play anything they don't like, so hopefully the people like you or you are paying them!

Adam, I'll be frank: the large jumps are a lot to ask. It's not impossible, but it's awkward in the extreme.

Keep in mind: the viola (and all standard bowed stringed instruments) have four strings that are stretched across an arched bridge - arched so that the bow only hits one string at a time, unless the player directs otherwise, and hitting more than two strings at once involves an arpeggiated effect. The arch is subtle, but it's enough distance so that jumping from the low string to the high string quickly and repeatedly can be messy, even prohibitively difficult. Factor in the larger size of the viola (making it more awkward than the violin even under optimal circumstances), and you've got a recipe for disaster.

The viola's open strings are C (below middle C), G (below middle C), D (directly above middle C) and A (above middle C). To choose just one of the patterns you've written: starting in measure 12 (as BitterDuck pointed out), you've written a C and D below middle C, jumping up to F and D more than an octave above middle C. The first two notes would have to be played in 1st position (with the hand closest to the nut, furthest from the bridge), open string © and 1st finger (D) - no negotiating that. The top two notes could be played in either 2nd or 3rd positions, but either way, you're asking the player to play two quick notes on the low string, jump to the high string instantaneously to play the next two notes, and switch positions, all in the space of 4 sixteenth notes - then jump back and do the whole thing over again...and over...and over. At the very least, the bow will be flying around. The player could try to play the top two notes of each pattern on a lower string, but that means s/he would have to play them in a much higher position on the fingerboard, while still having to play the low two notes in 1st position. Bitterduck correctly asks the question: is the effect you're after worth the trouble?

I appreciate what you're trying to do, but this would be something easier for the clarinet to accomplish - they don't have to worry about the physical difficulty of skipping strings. Listen to Mozart's Clarinet Concerto or Clarinet Quintet, and you'll hear how well those jumps work. Then listen to a Brahms viola sonata and compare. If you do hear jumps like that in string music, you'll only hear them once in a pattern...jumping around back and forth is impractical except in very specific instances - usually an arpeggio is involved, all the notes are in the same position, and the notes of the arpeggio move smoothly from one adjacent string to the other. (Example: Open G string, open D string, B [1st finger, 1st position on the A string]...an easy arpeggio with no skips).

There must have been some reason for you to doubt this, or you wouldn't have asked the question. When in doubt like this, think about what string the notes will probably have to be played on, and if you have to skip more than one string back and forth quickly, reconsider. :D